The Gambia needs a government and citizenry that are both empowered to promote the common good without fear or favour, affection or ill will. The signs are clear, there is need for a constructive national conversation to educate government and the citizenry on how to co-exist to promote, observe and defend a culture of rights, if transparency, accountability and probity are to be promoted in public service.
When the contrary is alleged in the performance of a public body, a special audit, performance audit, commission of inquiry could be conducted through the initiative of the executive or a parliamentary inquiry through the initiative of the National Assembly.
The role of citizens is to petition duty bearers to establish such institutions to look into such matters of transparency and accountability. Should public authorities fail to respond then citizens may take action of their choice to motivate government to take action to ensure transparency and accountability. Such action may take the form of peaceful demonstration or appealing to judicial intervention, should the relief sought be attainable through the courts.
If democracy is to survive in The Gambia, and the exercise of rights tolerated and protected, both government and people must know the extent and limit of the exercise of power and the purpose for doing so. Foroyaa strongly recommends that those arrested in connection with the sitting at the Arch 22, be released and all concerned to go back to the drawing board to find out what has gone wrong to warrant their arrest in a situation where the commitment of a crime may not be entirely be intended but may be implied in words.
Section 19 of the Constitution should be carefully read and understood by the citizenry and the law executing agencies and their agents. Subsection (3)(b) reads:
Any person who is arrested or detained upon reasonable suspicion of his or her having committed, or being about to commit, a criminal offence under the law of The Gambia, and who is not released, shall be brought without undue delay before a court and, in any event, within seventy-two hours.
Citizens are well protected by law when they say or act in a manner that will not raise suspicion that they have committed a crime or display any comportment that could lead to suspicion that they are about to commit a crime. Once citizens speak and act in a manner that no reasonable person could allege any commitment of a crime or suspicion of being about to commit a crime, then any arrest is likely to be considered unlawful by the courts.
The law executing agencies and their agents should only exercise their power of arrest when they have justifiable reasons to believe that someone has committed a crime or is about to commit a crime.
We hope that human rights defenders will also be human rights educators. Rights cannot be defended until the law is understood and observed in the exercise of rights. Speech and action must be within the guards and fences of the law in order for rights of speech and action to be protected by the law. Arrests and enforcement could only be reasonable, justifiable and lawful when they are done within the confines of the guards and fences of the law. This is the verdict of the fundamental principles of the culture of rights and the rule of law and is incontrovertible.
